According to a report from the Nikkei, 40 Sony executives will return amounts equivalent to as much as 35 per cent of their annual salaries - the total amount saved could run as high as ¥1 billion, or almost $10 million.

While Sony is certainly in the midst of pervasive cost-cutting, this is almost certainly a gesture of good faith as the company struggles to regain some stability in many of the markets on which its business is built. Indeed, this is the third consecutive year that Sony's executives have been asked to make the sacrifice.

Sony will report its fiscal year results (ended March 31 2014) tomorrow, and its expected losses will run to around $1.2 billion.